Monday, March 21, 2005

The Butler Has A New Home

From FT.com IAC near deal to buy Ask Jeeves for $1.9B .

IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet company headed by Barry Diller, is close to an agreement to acquire Ask Jeeves Inc., the nation’s fourth-largest search engine company, for about $1.9 billion, according to an executive involved in the negotiations.

An announcement could be made as early as today.

A couple things I wonder about. This trademark issue is hanging over the search engines. That will change the valuations of search. We are also coming to a slower time for ad spending, why buy it now?

Second, if a company really wanted to be ahead of the curve, instead of chasing it, they should be looking at search for mobile. Where are the companies that think outside the box?

Mobile search is inevitable. There are more screens involved than PC's and the traffic on it will surpass PC's too shortly.

I am reminded by the scene in GoodWill Hunting when Matt Damon says to Robin Williams. "You professors are alike. You surround yourself with all of these fancy books, only problem is, they're the wrong books".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From your current an previous ponderings on trademark infringment
and lawsuits, it appears that "Ask Jeeves" hears the courts cacophony and"Diller" does not.It appears this goes to your "Brand Control" issue.